Japanese company Koei Tecmo, the creator of popular franchises such as Dynasty Warriors, Dead or Alive, and Ninja Gaiden, concluded fiscal year 2024 by recording its highest profit level in history and experiencing a significant growth of 11.4%.
While some other giants in the Japanese game industry are grappling with challenges like declining sales or increasing competition, Koei Tecmo has successfully maintained its strong market position by intelligently focusing on enthusiastic fans of action games, particularly the Musou subgenre.
The company demonstrated an active presence in the market during the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 with the release of five new titles. Dynasty Warriors: Origins, serving as a fresh starting point for newcomers to this long-standing Musou series, was met with considerable acclaim. Subsequently, less than a month later, the spin-off roguelike title Warriors: Abyss was also launched. Furthermore, Koei Tecmo garnered significant attention at the Xbox Developer Direct event with the surprise announcement of the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster and the unveiling of Ninja Gaiden 4, which is anticipated to be released later this year. Alongside these prominent titles, two lesser-known games, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land and Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme, were also released last March.
Considering this wave of recent releases, Koei Tecmo’s remarkable success in the past fiscal year comes as little surprise. According to the released financial report, the Japanese publisher achieved a record-breaking profit in fiscal year 2024, marking an 11.4% increase compared to the previous year, which translates to approximately $250 million. Given that Koei Tecmo’s fiscal year begins on April 1st, 2024, the successful sales of the PlayStation 5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin likely played a significant role in this achievement. Additionally, the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster, which apparently did not incur high production costs and was made available on Xbox Game Pass on its release day, seems to have bolstered the company’s financial performance without negatively impacting profitability.
This trend of success is expected to continue with upcoming titles such as Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a 2D game from the creators of Blasphemous, as well as Ninja Gaiden 4. Moreover, the game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is anticipated to be released in 2026 for the Nintendo Switch 2 console.
